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2010

Lord, Make me Willing to be Willing – 12/12/10

After last week’s service I mentioned the fact that on occasion I deliberately say something in my sermon that seems contrary to spiritual truths I have taught in the past. I explained that I do this in hopes someone will pick up on it and generate discussion which is what happened with a couple of women last week. Expressing their confusion, the following was posted in my guest book.

The Gift of Forgiveness – 12/5/10

I had been planning to preach a special sermon this morning to commemorate the second Sunday of Advent. The text’s I had selected were verses 5-17 of the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke. They contained a record of an amazing supernatural event in which an angel suddenly appeared to a Jewish priest named Zechariah and foretold the birth of John the Baptist.

A Letter From God – 11/14/10

I wasn’t sure how I was going to begin today’s message until midway through the weekly Bible Study at the Gazebo Apartment’s last Thursday. Before we begin that study, the elderly ladies who are in their mid to late eighties usually express how thankful they are in knowing that Jesus loves them. They also speak about issues (usually health related) they are dealing with. When it was my turn I told them how happy I was to be with them that morning, especially after Satan’s unsuccessful attempt to prevent me from attending.

Some Hallmarks of a Genuine Christian – 11/7/10

I concluded last Sunday’s sermon by saying, “Next week my sermon will be called A Letter From God. I’m hoping and praying it will become a source of comfort and encouragement for those folks who always seem to be going through one difficult time after another.” I worked on it on and off throughout the week and went to bed last night intending to put the finishing touches to it before breakfast.

A Halloween Treat for Victoria – 10/31/10

It seems like only yesterday that I was standing up here on a Sunday morning in October of the year 2000 wishing I could tell my Halloween story to you Victoria but at the time you were just a little kid. You were in that pew back there with your mommy. Seated next to you was your nana and papa.

Convictions of the Heart – 10/17/10

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. 3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah 5 I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity

The Valley of Blessings and Curses pt VIII – 10/7/10

As I was driving home from last week’s Worship Service the memory of what three of the attendees shared with me after it ended lingered in my mind. It’s always nice to learn that the Lord spoke to someone through one of my sermons. It wasn’t until a couple of days later though, that I found out just how relevant that sermon was for two of them.

The Valley of Blessings and Curses pt VII – 10/3/10

I have recently come to the realization that the main reason I’ve been preaching this series of sermons dealing with the imprecatory prayers is because my love for our Lord and my hatred of evil has been increasing significantly. The closer I get to Him as I travel through this dark sin drenched world, the better able I am to see sin through His eyes and desire what He wants. I don’t know how close I am to arriving at the end of my journey, but today I can honestly say I love the Lord and hate evil.

Especially for Katie – 9/26/10

I realize my series of messages on the Imprecatory Prayers have been very painful for some of you folks to listen to, especially you mothers and grandmothers. Considering your revulsion of my shockingly graphic accounts of pure unadulterated evil that has been unleashed upon men, women and children of all ages and the resulting nightmarish pain, misery and suffering they have had to endure; I can imagine your own thoughts about me and those of the demonic slime-balls that I’m sure you have been bombarded with.

The Valley of Blessings and Curses pt VI – 9/12/10

I’m sorry to have to tell those of you who are fans of my fictitious character Charlie, but at the moment I have him and the Angel together with the Bible-study group all settled in at the Sunday Worship Service. They’re sitting in the church silently awaiting the guest preacher who begins his sermon by saying: Last week, after speaking about some of the immense atrocities committed by the former terrorist, Kamal Saleem

The Valley of Blessings and Curses pt V – 9/5/10

Seated in my fictitious church with the rest of the Saturday morning Bible Study group, Charle’s widow Martha whispered to the others; “I wonder why the preacher is standing in the pulpit and hasn’t started yet?” Unheard by her and everyone else; at the exact same moment her late husband asked the angel: “When do we get to go back and hear that guest preacher, Pal?” And the angel answered, “At this precise moment, Charlie.” And then all of a sudden Poof, Charlie and the Angel were in the church just in time to hear the man begin.

The Valley of Blessings and Curses pt IV – 8/29/10

The longer I try to follow Christ and the closer I get to Him and as imperfect as it no doubt is, my love of Him and concern for the eternal well being of people intensifies. So much so, that I’m deeply saddened whenever I think about the inconceivable torment awaiting those folks who are presently treating Jesus and His love for them with contempt. The thought of God finally giving someone I know his or her heart’s desire, and allowing them to always do their own thing (Romans 1:24, 26, 28)

The Valley of Blessings and Curses pt III – 8/15/10

This morning we’re going to pick up where we left off last week. Once again we hear an agitated man’s voice say: “I can hardly wait for the teacher to set that Marvin goof-ball guy straight, Pal.” “I’m sure the teacher will be able to defend the truthfulness of the Scriptures quite well, Charlie. By the way, I regret having to inform you I just received word from Angelic Headquarters that you will be unable to converse with me when we return to the group. You will have to reserve your comments until we’re back here. That’s impossible, Pal.

A Special Wedding Blessing – 8/15/10

Good afternoon everyone. On behalf of Jerry and Sarah I’m honored to welcome you to this very special occasion. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Mike Cunningham and I’m the pastor of this little church. I’m also Sarah’s Grandpa and I have to admit then when Sarah first introduced me to Jerry I never thought we would be gathered here today. The first thing I noticed was that there’s quite a difference in their ages. I knew Sarah was a bright young woman and I thought that with the passing of time she would decide that Jerry wasn’t the man for her. As you can see, I was mistaken.

The Valley of Blessings and Curses pt II – 8/7/10

For those of you who weren’t here last week I’m going to repeat the prayer I prayed when I ended my sermon. “Father, please take those thoughts of my mind and words of my mouth and make them a blessing to everyone who just heard them and others who may read them later. Please constantly remind each of us that all of the Scriptures have been inspired by you and are therefore without contradiction or error.

The Valley of Blessings and Curses pt I – 8/1/10

After this year’s Independence Day Worship Service one of you folks asked me to please don’t forget to address the questions I left unanswered in a previous sermon. Her request was sweet music ears; because that’s something I always hope folks will do and also because I was planning on answering them in the first sermon I preached after returning from vacation.

I Wonder What He’s Up to Now – 7/4/10

Please don’t think I’m trying to sound humble but, all things considered, this morning’s message was the best I could come up with. I had to borrow bits and pieces from previous sermons because last week was one of the most emotionally draining weeks of my entire life. So much so, that I was tempted and came very close to asking Him to take me home. That will give you an idea of how worn out I felt. But that was last week and I’m doing much better now, thanks to Christ’s strength within me and the prayers of a lot folks.

Mysterious Acts of Divine Providence – 6/20/10

Before I begin I want to make one announcement. My Father’s Day sermon is a special one for the children who are with us today. In other words, it’s a full length children’s sermon. All the grown-ups are excused and can go into the Fellowship Room. But don’t snitch any of the goodies! Of course, they’re welcome to stay if you want to. A lot of the Bible verses I intend to quote will go over the head of you children. However, I want you each to know that the most important things I want to teach you will be very easy to understand. In fact, it will be a piece of cake!

God’s Mysterious Interventions pt II – 6/13/10

Those of you who were here last week may recall me saying that “At this point in my message we can focus on verse 17, (from the 33 Chapter of The Book of Job which reads) “…. that he may turn man aside from his deed and conceal pride from a man,” and move right along. However, I believe it will be more helpful if we first carefully consider what Elihu described in the preceding two verses as being dreams and visions of the night which occur while men are lying fast asleep on their beds. Here all three verses again:

God’s Mysterious Interventions pt I – 6/6/10

PART ONE-DREAMS AND VISIONS

Writing to the Christians living in Ephesus, the Apostle Paul urged them to:

“…walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call,” Ephesians 4:1-4 (ESV).

The Army of Humble Warriors – 5/16/10

Although the “Kingdom of God” is slowly but surely advancing in our country, it’s an undeniable fact that we Christians aren’t as spiritually healthy or as vibrant as we could and should be. For example, instead of exerting a godly Christ-like influence upon our society, it appears as though many Christians are being transformed by it. When you take into account the prevalence of the proud self-centered lifestyle’s of many Christians, and couple that sad fact with all the fiercely proud individualism and an almost voice-less apathy regarding societal ills;

We Fooled You – 5/9/10

Unless I´m greatly mistaken, one of the nicest things a Christian mom who has grown children can experience on Mother´s Day is to have them sitting next to her in church during the morning worship service. If it isn´t possible, she still feels blessed just knowing that the special person God planned to have her give birth to before speaking the world into existence would have accompanied her if he or she wasn´t sick, had to work, or because of some other understandable reason.

The Road to the Upside Down Kingdom – 4/25/10

Last week we saw that before speaking the world into existence, the Triune God chose certain human beings to be holy and blameless in His sight. He planned to adopt these people into His family through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ,(Ephesians 1:4-5). Before He created the world, it was also part of that plan that at a precise moment in human history (Galatians 4:4), He would unite all things in heaven and on earth through Jesus, (Ephesians 1:10). Then, in verses 11-13 of the second chapter of Paul’s letter to the Jewish and Gentile Christians living in Ephesus

The Bond of Christian Unity – 4/16/10

I was saddened several months ago when the latest expose´ of the unadulterated evil which has been taking place within the Roman Catholic Church for hundreds of years erupted in the international media. It may seem odd to those of you who haven’t heard the last two sermons I preached on this issue back in August (A) and September of ’08, (B) when I tell you, that, my first thoughts this time weren’t of the thousands of victims of the pedophile priests.

The Eighth Day of Creation pt IV – 4/11/10

In the first three messages of this series I spoke about four Christians each of whom I believe would jump at an opportunity of exchanging their body for a brand-new one. Unless I’m greatly mistaken, the two women [Carroll and Linda] would gladly swap theirs for those of the men, but I know the men [Bob and Sergio] would never agree. Please don’t misunderstand me.

The Eighth Day of Creation pt III – 4/4/10

As I was thinking about this morning’s message I was reminded of an incident shared with me recently by my daughter. It was about something that happened around St. Patrick’s Day involving a coworker of one of her close friends. The woman was at work when she received a phone call from her 6’ 1,” 185 pound, 15 year-old mentally challenged son who was alone in their home at the time. He gleefully shouted:

The Eighth Day of Creation pt II – 3/20/10

Although I intended last week’s message to be encouraging for everyone, I hoped it would be used by God as a means of bestowing a special blessing upon our friends Guy and Carroll. I concluded by saying: Whenever we ask Him to deliver us from our seemingly never ending divinely ordained physical and or emotional pain, we must remember our immutable Creator (Psalm 33:11; 102:27; Malachi 13:6; Hebrews 1:2, 13:8; James 1:7) never changes.

The Eighth Day of Creation pt I – 3/14/10

During our worship service a couple of weeks ago when our friend Guy was with us; I did something I had never done before. I told everyone I planned on dedicating this morning’s message to him and his wife Carroll because they are two of the people who are in my constant thoughts and prayers. Although I intended this message to be encouraging for everyone, I hoped it would be used by God as a means of bestowing a special blessing upon them.

Before It’s Too Late – 2/21/10

t was nice leaving last week’s service knowing God had definitely spoken to a couple of people through my message, and that they planned on publicly sharing some of their thoughts concerning it in my web page guest-book. Thanks to those two people I knew my prayers asking God for His help with that message had been answered. That knowledge is beneficial because, as I have shared many times in the past; Satan and his cohorts constantly try their hardest to distract me in hopes of making my sermons ineffectual.

Some Helpful Things to Remember about Evangelism – 2/14/10

Because of the passing of time and my study of the Scriptures, I’m becoming more keenly aware of the fact that my love of God and fellow human beings, together with my hatred of Satan and his slime-ball cohorts is intensifying greatly. I’m also gaining a deeper appreciation of His incomprehensible love for His human creatures through the indescribable agony He suffered on the cross in the Person of His Son, the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Because He Loves Me! – 2/7/10

I don’t think there are many of the millions of football fans on this Super Bowl Sunday who would be interested in hearing this morning’s message. I doubt if the previous ones in this series would be of interest to most Americans either. In case you don’t already know what I’m alluding to, the following excerpts from the entries in my web page guestbook will help you understand.

The Hounds of Hell – 1/31/10

Those of you who have been attending our church for a while, and the folks who read my sermons afterward, know I care deeply about the ultimate fate and horrible consequences awaiting people who refuse to accept Christ’s unconditional love for them. One of my greatest desires is that none of my loved ones and certain other people leave this sin infested world still lost in their sins.

The Haitian Horrors – 1/17/10

As I was driving home from last week’s worship service I had a fairly good idea of what I believed the Lord wanted me to share with you folks this morning. However, in the middle of the afternoon I came across an article in Time Magazine which convinced me otherwise. So much so, that I started gathering background material. I even had the hymns selected in the exact order I thought they ought to be sung. Little did I know at the time, but the Lord had other plans for me, and I am now absolutely certain of what He wants me to share with you folks this morning.

What If…? – 1/10/10

In order to bring everyone up to speed I have to first take several minutes and go into a little bit of my message of last May 31st (Flashbacks Into The Kingdom of Darkness) and then pick up where I left off. An amazing conversation had been taking place between a couple of my fictitious characters, a man named Charlie and his guardian angel who are living in “the other side” of eternity.


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